MANILA – Three of the seven luxury vehicles seized from controversial contractors Pacifico "Curlee" and Cezarah Rowena "Sarah" Discaya have been sold during a public auction held by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) on Thursday.
Based on BOC data, the auction of the three vehicles collected a total of PHPP38,211,710 from two bidders, Simplex Industrial Corp. (two cars) and Lestrell Jewelries (one car).
Simplex Industrial purchased the Mercedes-Benz G500 (2019) Brabus at PHP15,500,000 and the Mercedes Benz G63 AMG (2022) at PHP15,611,710.
On the other hand, Lestrell Jewelries got the Lincoln Navigator (2022) for bidding the winning bid price of PHP7,100,000.
Commissioner Ariel Nepomuceno said they expect to collect a total of more than PHP103 million if all seven vehicles will be sold.
Meanwhile, a failed bidding was declared for the four other vehicles as there were no interested bidders for the Toyota Tundra (2022) with an initial floor price of PHP4,994,079; 2023 Toyota Sequoia (PHP7,258,800.36); 2023 Rolls-Royce Cullinan (PHP45,314,391.11); and 2022 Bentley Bentayga (PHP17,311,121.93).
Lawyer Chris Bendijo, deputy chief of staff of the Office of the Commissioner, said they will reconvene and recompute the new floor price for the remaining vehicles.
“Those vehicles that were subjet of a failed bidding the committee will reconvene and recompute the floor price. Example, for this auction we used a 10 percent depreciation factor but we can now consider maximizing to 16 percent depreciation. We could also consider current market prices,” he said.
“In five days, we would be republishing our new floor prices and depending on the development of other vehicles,“ the BOC official added.
Prior to the auction, Nepomuceno inspected the seven vehicles at the BOC main office in Port Area, Manila, with newly appointed Finance chief Frederick Go, Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) chairperson Andres Reyes Jr. and Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Vince Dizon.
Meanwhile, Dizon said government will not stop and is just beginning to recover money stolen from the Filipinos by those involved in infrastructure project anomalies.
He assured that this is just the beginning of many more stolen resources that are guaranteed to be returned to the people's coffers in the coming days and months.
“First of all, you know that the legacy of our President is that not only should those who are responsible for stealing all of our money be imprisoned. But the money of our countrymen must also be returned. And this is the beginning. This is the beginning,” he said in a separate statement.
Dizon further assured that arrest warrants will soon be issued against those involved in the anomalies and that the government will pursue many more stolen properties to return them to the public treasury.
“It is a very important symbol and the beginning of what our President said that we cannot let this go by without returning the money of our countrymen,” he added. (PNA)